Qaddafi: A look back

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Col. Muammar Qaddafi seized control of Libya in 1969 with a military coup that overthrew King Idris. He was influenced by Israel's defeat of Arab forces in 1948 and Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egyptian revolution in 1952. Many acts of terrorism were associated with Qaddafi's regime from the 1970s through the early 90s. k09/ZUMA Press/Newscom/File

Qaddafi comes from a tribe of stock-herding Arabized Berbers called the Qaddadfa. k09/ZUMA Press/Newscom/File

Qaddafi sought to become the Che Guevara of his time, welcoming to Libya those with anti-Western and anti-imperialist sentiments and aiding them with weapons and money. He never promoted himself beyond the rank of colonel, reasoning that because Libya was ruled by the people, he did not need a higher rank to command the military.

Early on, Qaddafi showed a penchant for eye-catching clothing and regalia. His official title is 'Brotherly Leader and Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,' and he is one of the longest-ruling leaders in history. k09/ZUMA Press/Newscom/File

Qaddafi meets Leonid Brezhnev, general secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in Moscow in 1981. Vasily Yegorov, Valentin Kuzmin/Tass/Newscom/File

Qaddafi sits with his son Hannibal and daughter Ayesha in the Bab Azizia Palace grounds after the 1984 coup attempt against him. Walter Renaud/SIPA/Newscom/File

Qaddafi talks to Soviet journalists at a news conference one week after the US bombing of Libya in 1986. Qaddafi sold weapons to the Irish Republican Army and supported fringe members of the Palestine Liberation Organization, leading President Reagan to call him a 'mad dog' and order the bombing. AP/File

Qaddafi meets with South Africa's then-President Nelson Mandela in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1999. Libya gave money early on to Mandela's African National Congress to help it fight apartheid in South Africa. Eric Miller/Picturedesk International/Newscom/File

Qaddafi talks with Joerg Haider, Austrian right-wing politician and governor of the province of Carinthia, near Tripoli, Libya, in 2004. The Qaddafi clan has close ties to Austria. One of Qaddafi's sons, Saif al-Islam, studied in Vienna and was friends with the late Mr. Haider. Gert Eggenberger/AP/File

Qaddafi meets former Prime Minister Tony Blair at his desert base outside Sirte, south of Tripoli, Libya, in 2007. Beginning in the 1990s, Qaddafi started to pursue friendlier relations with the West, as his isolationist stance was impacting oil sales and weakening his power. ]Stefan Rousseau/PA/AbacaUSA.com/Newscom/File

Qaddafi greets his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy at Bab Azizia Palace in Tripoli, Libya, in 2007. Sarkozy met Qaddafi on a trip to deepen relations after helping to resolve a diplomatic standoff that hurt the oil exporter's ties with the West. Christophe Guibbaud/Abacapress.com/Newscom/File

Qaddafi's bodyguards stand watch while he visits the Louvre Museum in Paris in 2007. Thibault Camus/Reuters/File

Qaddafi raises hands with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Margarita Island, Venezuela, in 2009. The two leaders signed a joint declaration to further political, economic, and energy cooperation. Bolivar News Agency/Xinhua/Sipa Press/Newscom/File

Qaddafi shakes hands with President Obama before a dinner at the G8 summit in L'Aquila, Italy, in 2009. Alessandro Bianchi/Reuters/File

Qaddafi smiles with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as he arrives at the Chigi Palace in Rome in 2009. Max Rossi/Reuters

Qaddafi drives his personal cart in Tripoli, Libya, after making a speech on March 2 with which he sought to defuse tensions after more than 10 days of antigovernment protests. Qaddafi, orchestrating a populist response to rebels threatening his rule, blamed Al Qaeda for creating turmoil and told applauding supporters there was a conspiracy to control Libya and its oil. Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters

After widespread protests, a six-month state of emergency started in October. Now, much depends on the next move of leaders who have long used their track record of economic development to paper over widespread human rights abuses and political repression.

ByJames Jeffrey, ContributorDecember 9, 2016

Stringer/AP/File

For nearly a year, mass protests surged across Ethiopia – and stormed across the world’s headlines – as a movement that began with farmers fighting land grabs outside the country’s capital mushroomed into the country’s most sustained and widespread period of dissent and protests since its ruling party came to power more than two decades ago.